By Isle of Wight Observer
The Isle of Wight Observer published on August 11th, 1855 told the tale of a lad with a tail – not from the Island but from what was then the North Riding of Yorkshire. The os sacrum is a large triangular bone at the base of the spine. The os coccygis is now more commonly referred to as the coccyx – or tailbone – and is the is the final segment of the vertebral column. If a newspaper in these more enlightened days referred to such a boy as a ‘freak of nature’ there would be outrage!
A BOY WITH A REAL TAIL. – At Middlesborough-in-Tees there exists a singular freak of nature, “a boy with a real tail;” He is about four months old and in good health. He has a perfect caudal appendage four or five inches in length. It springs from the vertebrae of the os sacrum, not the os coccygis, as does the tail of an animal, which is a continuation of the spinal structure. It has caused much interest among the faculty, who have had a consultation whether it would be proper to take it off; but, as upon examination it is found to possess the properties of a limb, having bone, muscle, feeling, &c, and can be moved at the will of the child, it is feared the operation might endanger the child’s life by affecting the spinal cord. It may prove of great inconvenience to the possessor in after life, as it will intrude upon the seat of honour.